This group is intended to be a central repository for discussions, files and links related to the software package "Light Aircraft Designer" (LAD). LAD is a free, open-source, Excel spreadsheet that predicts the performance of light aircraft. LAD takes actual engine data, combined with actual propeller data (if you have it), and other parameters such as wing area, weight and so forth to predict:

- Maximum level speed
- Climb rate
- Take off distance
- Performance at altitude
- much more...

Some of the results are numeric, and some are presented in graphical form. Beta testers wanted!!

Other spreadsheets are also available to assist in aircraft design, including:

> Plotting aircraft in a simple "3D" wireframe plot
> Extracting and viewing airfoil polars from the software program Xfoil
> A database of which aircraft use which airfoils

Other projects are in the works, such as:

* Using the information from the plotting program mentioned above as inputs for the AVL control/stability analysis tool.
* Converting these tools into OpenOffice

If you would like to use, or assist in the development of, these tools, come on in!